Tiger Woods and his knee injury is, of course, a hot topic of discussion today after withdrawing from The Players Championship.

While many critics and pundits are speculating Tiger Woods is done, his injury problems have far less of an impact on his career than Grant Hill.

Tiger Woods’ injury issues may prevent him from ever breaking Jack Nicklaus’s record for 18 career majors. But if Tiger Woods never swings another golf club, he will still have an accomplished career.

The same can’t be said for Grant Hill. Injuries derailed Grant Hill from ever reaching his potential in the NBA. Judging by Hill’s college career at Duke and early days with the Detroit Pistons suggested Grant Hill was on track to be one of the elite forwards in NBA history.

But, well…Orlando Magic fans begrudgingly remember how the rest of that story finished. Grant Hill never fully recovered from a series of injuries and therefore never reached his potential in the NBA.

Despite his history with injury problems, 38-year-old Grant Hill became just the seventh player of that age to average a minimum of 13 points in the 2010-11 NBA season with the Phoenix Suns. Grant Hill’s accomplishment puts him on the list with Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Reggie Miller, John Stockton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish.

Don’t get me wrong. Clearly, Grant Hill’s career wasn’t anywhere near the same ballpark as the above mentioned players.

But his accomplishment does make you wonder what the ceiling for Grant Hill’s talent could have been had injuries not taken over.

What’s worse? Never having the chance to reach your potential or reaching your potential and not being able to maintain it?

Executive Producer and NBA Player Grant Hill and singer Tamia attend a screening of "Starting At The Finish Line: The Coach Buehler Story" at Tribeca Cinemas on April 22, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Former Orlando Magic forward Grant Hill said his ankle injury was mishandled by the Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic medical teams during an intriguing 55-minute podcast interview with Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock.

The discussion covered a wide range of topics including the Jalen Rose Uncle Tom comments, politics, his college basketball career at Duke, and his NBA stints with the Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic. But the conversation took a interesting turn when Whitlock questioned Grant Hill about his past ankle and knee injuries that plagued his time with the Orlando Magic from 2000-07.

Less than six months after receiving ankle surgery in May of 2000, Grant Hill started in the Magic’s opener against the Washington Wizards.

“The next day the doctor who performed (my) surgery picks the paper up and saw that I played like 30 minutes and he was irate,” Hill said. “I wasn’t supposed to be on the court doing basketball-related activity until December. So somewhere along the line, the ball was dropped. And certainly I didn’t know that until the doctor informed me of that. Apparently he had forwarded all the information down there to Orlando. I was told to follow the instructions. I played in another game in Miami the next night and they shut me down to do rehab for five or six weeks. By then it was too late. What should’ve been a six- or seven-month recovery before you get on the court to play, I was on the court in three or four months.”

Whitlock asked if Grant Hill held his former Magic coach Doc Rivers accountable for any of the injury mismanagement, to which he quickly shot down. He also added that Doc Rivers was perhaps unfairly judged during his time in Orlando because he never got the chance to compete with a fully healthy roster.

I’d advise listening to the entire interview to get the full context of the conversation. Grant Hill starts speaking about the injuries around the 29 minute mark.

Grant Hill has a very credible reputation and certainly isn’t one for controversy so that makes his comments all the more in interesting.

You probably spit out your water reading that headline. If so, you weren’t the only one.

A fan spit in the direction of Grant Hill after the Phoenix Suns lost a 97-94 decision to the Chicago Bulls at the United Center in Chicago Tuesday. According to the Arizona Republic, security had to restrain Grant Hill from charging after the fan.

“He said some profanity and spit in my direction,” Grant Hill told the paper. “I’m not going to let somebody spit at me. He knew he did wrong because he took off running.”

Grant Hill’s teammate and former Orlando Magic guard Vince Carter added, “When you see Grant like that, you know something’s up. Grant doesn’t say anything to anybody. He competes and does his job.”